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Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution - Bill of Rights

"A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed."

Preservation and Proposition

Our mission is to document the pivotal Second Amendment events that occurred in Frontier Mercersburg, and its environs, and to heighten awareness of the importance of these events in the founding of our Nation.

We are dedicated to the preservation of the place where the Second Amendment was "born" and to the proposition that the Second Amendment (the "right to bear arms") is the keystone of our Liberty and the Republic.

Wednesday, August 21, 2013

By: John Stossel - 8/21/2013
We need police to catch murderers, thieves and con men, and so we give them special power the power to use force on others. Sadly, today's police use that power to invade people�s homes over accusations of trivial, nonviolent offenses and often do it with tanks, battering rams and armor you'd expect on b attlefields.

In his book "Rise of the Warrior Cop", Radley Balko recounts the rise of police SWAT teams (SWAT stands for Special Weapons And Tactics) armed with heavy military equipment. SWAT raids began as rarely used methods of dealing with violent situations, like hostage-takings.

But government always grows.

In the 1970s, there were about 300 SWAT raids per year. As of 2005, says Balko, 100 to 150 per day.

Smart consumers will frequently shop around before making a major purchase. With the advent of e-commerce, gun owners have an unprecedented ability to compare prices and services online.

Unfortunately, there are also an unprecedented number of people looking to make a quick buck by selling you a counterfeit product that looks like the real deal. Some consumers might unknowingly buy a knock-off thinking it is the genuine article. Others might know it is counterfeit, but can't resist the low price.

Lets take a look at some of the problems associated with counterfeit products.

Monday, August 19, 2013

Mayor Mike McGinn plans to unveil a program Monday to encourage Seattle businesses to go "gun free" by not allowing customers to carry firearms inside their establishments.

About a dozen businesses have already signed up for a "Gun Free Zone" decal, including Cafe Racer, where a customer shot and killed four others last year. Other participants include Neumos, Oddfellows Cafe & Bar, Sweatbox Yoga and Cupcake Royale, with more expected in the coming days.

"This is something businesses can do to be on the front lines of preventing gun violence," said Ralph Fascitelli, board president of Washington CeaseFire, a gun-control group that approached McGinn three months ago with the idea and has since been recruiting participants. "It's a good incremental step."

Friday, August 16, 2013

A woman and her family were dining at a Denny’s in Houston, Texas when a group of six men armed with guns attempted to rob her husband while she was in the restroom. When the woman exited the restroom and spotted the hold-up, she drew a pistol and exchanged gunfire with the criminals, causing them to flee.

Following the incident, a local media outlet spoke with the victim’s brother who noted that his brother’s wife is a Right-to-Carry permit holder. The brother went on to add, “Self-defense saved my brother’s life.”

By Sharyl Attkisson - 8/14/2013
CBS News
Three more weapons from Fast and Furious have turned up at crime scenes in Mexico, CBS News has learned, as the toll from the controversial federal operation grows.

According to Justice Department tracing documents obtained by CBS News, all three guns are WASR-10 762-caliber Romanian rifles. Two were purchased by Fast and Furious suspect Uriel Patino in May and July of 2010. Sean Steward, who was convicted on gun charges in July 2012, purchased a third. The rifles were traced yesterday to the Lone Wolf gun shop in Glendale, Ariz.

During Fast and Furious and similar operations, federal agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) encouraged the Lone Wolf and other gun stores to sell massive amounts of weapons to questionable purchasers who allegedly trafficked them Mexican drug cartels.

Monday, August 12, 2013

Your right to defend your life and the lives of your loved ones when faced with a deadly threat is not bestowed on you by government. Indeed, self-defense is the most fundamental of all human rights, and it's the duty of our elected officials to preserve it.

That is why the 5 million men and women of the National Rifle Association will not allow self-defense to be used as a scapegoat so that President Obama and his administration can continue to exploit tragedies to push their political agenda. We will continue to defend the right of every law-abiding American regardless of race, color and creed to defend themselves and one another.

Attorney General Eric Holder shockingly claimed that pro-self-defense laws "sow conflict." Last week, President Obama demonstrated that he, too, does not recognize that your right to save your own life is a fundamental human right.

Thursday, August 8, 2013

By Jim Fitzgerald - 8/7/2013
(AP)Associated Press
A firearms manufacturer in New York, partially blaming the state's new gun control law, said Wednesday it's moving its corporate offices and its plans for expansion to Pennsylvania.

Kahr Firearms Group of Pearl River is the first gunmaker to announce it's leaving because of the Secure Ammunition and Firearms Enforcement Act, which was put into law after closed-door negotiations in January. It was the first law in the nation prompted by the killing of 20 first-graders and six educators in Newtown, Conn., in December.

By Jeremy A. Kaplan - 8/8/2013
FoxNews.com
Reports of a Canadian man successfully firing 14 single rounds from a rifle manufactured by a 3D rinter has the weapon's American designer wondering whether the apparent breakthrough will force the U.S. government to rethink its ban on posting his plans online.

While early models based on firearms designer Cody Wilson's plans backfired or fired only once before breaking, the latest test appears to prove that homemade plastic guns are viable -- and that the Internet may have dramatically changed how we look at regulating the trade in arms.

I'm expecting some interesting decisions from the State Department soon regarding the legal status of the disclosures of the plans, Wilson told FoxNews.com Thursday.

Tuesday, August 6, 2013

Gun-related violent crime continues to drop in Virginia as the sales of firearms continue to soar, a pattern that one local criminologist finds interesting "given the current rhetoric about strengthening gun laws."

Major gun crime collectively dropped for a fourth consecutive year statewide, while firearms sales climbed to a new record in 2012 with 490,119 guns purchased in 444,844 transactions -- a 16 percent rise over 2011, according to federally licensed gun dealer sales estimates obtained by the Richmond Times-Dispatch.

The proliferation of guns occurred as the total number of major reported crimes committed with all types of firearms in Virginia dropped 5 percent, from 4,618 offenses in 2011 to 4,378 last year, according to Virginia State Police data.

Looking back over seven years, total firearm sales in Virginia have risen a staggering 101 percent from 2006 to 2012, while gun-related crime has dropped 28 percent during that period.

Two days ago, a man whom I've known and respected for over a decade launched into a more than slightly incoherent Facebook rant in which he explicitly blamed the NRA and law-abiding civilian shooters for the Newtown killings. Those children died, he wrote, so you could have your toys without any reasonable restrictions. I didn't know how to respond to the post.

After all, none of the reasonable restrictions now being proposed would have prevented Adam Lanza's affluent, well-educated mother from purchasing a gun. I tried pointing that out to my friend, only to have him dismiss me as a gun nut. Although he's normally a reasonable fellow, since Newtown happened he's clearly decided to let emotion take the wheel, at least for now. He's not the only intelligent person I've seen swept away towards irrationality in the past two weeks. Again and again, I've heard that reasonable gun control is now necessary, even inevitable. In my struggles to understand this, I thought back to World War II and the failure of what was perhaps the first-ever government-sponsored zip gun . . .The FP-45 Liberator.

Monday, August 5, 2013

California Sen. Dianne Feinstein is proposing an AR-style rifle ban while ignoring school security to save our children. Yet on this 40th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, she doesnt mention the 54 million abortions conducted in this country nor show remorse for this disrespect for human life.

Speeches at every Democratic National Convention reference abortion or a pro-choice platform to huge cheers from the rabid convention hall audience. Mother Teresa identified abortion as the greatest destroyer of peace today because it is a war against children, a direct killing of the innocent child, murder by the mother herself. If a mother can kill her own child and then tell young people not to kill one another, it is the ultimate hypocrisy in the eyes of the young.

Thursday, August 1, 2013

Timothy Peak and a female companion were getting inside a car in his driveway in Cleveland, Ohio when a pair of armed and masked men confronted them. After one of the criminals pistol-whipped Peak, the homeowner and Right-to-Carry permit holder retrieved a handgun from his car and fired at his attacker multiple times, killing him. The deceased criminal's accomplice managed to escape the scene with Peak's companion's purse.

Following the incident, Cleveland Councilman Mike Polensek showed support for Peak's actions, stating As far as I'm concerned, [the criminal] got exactly what he deserved lead poisoning. Polensek went on to say of the homeowner, If he hadn't had that gun, we'd be reading about him in a two paragraph story in the paper as another innocent victim of violent criminals looking to prey on him like jackals. [the criminal] picked on the wrong man this time.

For decades, the closest most people got to a gun suppressor those metal cylinders that reduce a gun's bang was seeing one on a movie screen in the hands of an assassin or gangster.

But sweeping gun legislation has made suppressors, also known as silencers, legal for hunting in North Carolina. Law enforcement authorities are now trying to figure out how to shape polices to implement the new law.

Last week, the N.C. legislature passed a far-reaching bill that expands the places where permit holders can legally carry concealed weapons, including bars, restaurants and parks. But the legislation also deleted a provision that prohibited hunters from using suppressors.

At a meeting of the the Internal Affairs Committee on reducing weapons, headed by MK Miri Regev, Aharonovich stated that as part of the gun reform in Israel, anyone who wishes to receive a gun permit will be required to undergo a medical and psychological examination. "If they won't pass the psychologist's test, they'll have to see a psychiatrist," he said.

The minister announced that a new police order will be introduced under which an individual who has not renewed his license in over six months will be subject to criminal investigation. Aharonovich said that over 290,000 guns are in the hands of private individuals and security guards, and that he strives to lower that number.

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It All Started Here . . .

Frontier Mercersburg in 1765 was the "birthplace" of the right we now refer to as "the Second Amendment", or, "the right to bear arms". It was here that individuals for the first time, some would say divinely, embraced the link between "Life and Liberty". . . and struck the first blow for Freedom.

Historically the right to bear arms goes back even before our founding as a nation to the Glorious Revolution of 1689 when William III agreed to the English Bill of Rights. If one can look at revolution like a volcanic eruption in nature, you understand that often from the destruction come the seeds of new human values and beliefs. In this case the independence of the human spirit, the right to know God for oneself, and to trust your conscience was hard won in this revolution of the human soul.

One crucible begets the necessity for another and on the frontier in America the right to defend ones religious beliefs was becoming the right to participate in the decisions of government that impact my "self". Freedom of the soul was becoming freedom of the heart and mind. Smith's Rebellion began as an act they justified under the rubric of defending oneself because government had failed in its obligation to protect Life, Liberty and Property. This was the first assertion of this principle aimed directly at British Military Authority as well as the incompetent government of John Penn - anywhere in the colonies.

In the end, Smith's Rebellion was the first armed resistance against British Military Rule leading up to the American Revolution. It was the first American triumph over the best military force in the world. It was the first time upon defending oneself that Americans had proclaimed we can rule ourselves.

It would be ten years before the battles at Lexington and Concord.

...Let Them Take Arms

The "Right to Bear Arms" . . .or 2nd Amendment is one of the most discussed and contentious of all the amendments of the Bill of Rights. It is, in fact, the only amendment that contains not only the seeds but the actual instruments of the revolution itself. Further, it gives real affirmation to Thomas Jefferson's quote . . .

"God forbid we should ever be twenty years without such a rebellion. The people cannot be all, and always, well informed. The part which is wrong will be discontented, in proportion to the importance of the facts they misconceive. If they remain quiet under such misconceptions, it is lethargy, the forerunner of death to the public liberty. ... And what country can preserve its liberties, if its rulers are not warned from time to time, that this people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms. The remedy is to set them right as to the facts, pardon and pacify them. What signify a few lives lost in a century or two? The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time, with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure."

It is for this reason, if no other, that the Government and its functionaries vociferously assail and obfuscate the text of this simple assertion. More, it is for this reason, and in the face of the perennial onslaught that its defense and affirmation is essential to the survival of the republic.

Frontier Mercersburg & The Justice William Smith House

The frontier town of Mercersburg, PA. in the 1760's, although typical of many settlements along the Appalachian Mountains played a pivotal role in the creation of what was to become the "Bill of Rights".

Frontiersmen like James Smith and the Black Boys, many of whom were inhabitants of the Mercersburg environs, were early participants in a series of conflicts with the British government that established principles the eventually lead to the inclusion of the "right to bear arms" in the Bill of Rights.

Much of the focus, centers on the domicile (and likely place of business) of Justice William Smith.